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Saturday, February 03, 2007

Shake Ups in DC Universe Films

Wow. It's been an active 48 hours in the world of movies based on DC Comics.

First comes the announcement that Joss Whedon is no longer working on the movie version of Wonder Woman. Whedon, of course, is the man responsible for the cult-classic TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.

The announcement that Whedon would be working on Wonder Woman came about 2 years ago, just as Whedon was wrapping up work on his first feature film, Serenity (the movie version of Firefly). Whedon's been trying to hammer out the perfect screenplay ever since. Truth be told, it's no surprise to me that Whedon is no longer involved. About six months ago, I read an interview with Whedon in which he explained what a difficult time he'd been having. "I look at Batman Begins, and I think that [Christopher Nolan] had it easy!" said Whedon. "Batman's got the best origin and the best rogues gallery...Batman writes himself!"

The announcement that Whedon's off the project was made by Whedon himself, over at his official blog. Whedon said that the split was fairly amiable. I'll just have you click on that link there, and read his complete statement if you like.

But you know what? I still have optimism that a great Wonder Woman movie can be made. For the producer, the man in charge of the whole endeavour, is Joel Silver, the same who filled a similar role in helping the Wachowski Brothers bring The Matrix Trilogy and V for Vendetta to fruition.

Goyer - in case you're too lazy to click on the link - wrote all three Blade movies co-wrote Batman Begins. He also directed Blade: Trinity and has an upcoming film he wrote and directed called The Invisibles. I once read an interview with him in which he boasted that he's consulted on every superhero adaptation currently in development (except Superman).

Goyer had some good ideas for The Flash. I read a couple of interviews with him in which he said he'd been consulting with physisists to see what would really happen if you could run "very near the speed of light" like the Flash.

And I really hope we get a good The Flash movie someday. Out of all the dark, brooding superhero movies we've been getting, the Flash is still truly a superhero that loves his job. He's probably my second-favourite DC hero, after Batman.

But yeah, similar to the Whedon situation, he and the studio just had differing views, so they parted company very aimiably.

Ya know, this an idea I had for sometime now. I really wish that DC Comics would take all these rejected screenplays for some of their heroes and turn them into graphic novels. Of course, I'm talking about the rejected screenplays that were written by these geek-friendly writers.

I can see it now. Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman, David S. Goyer's the Flash, and , the graphic novel that'd start it all off, Kevin Smith's Superman Lives.